This site maintained by Janice Hanes

Elder Hanes will never be on this blog. All posts and pics are posted by myself or others. Elder Hanes will send us letters or pictures and I will post them for all of us to enjoy.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

10-29 and 11-5


10/29/12
Hey so this week was crazy. There was a lot that happened.
First I guess, the doctor. So for the past little while I was not breathing like I was after the surgery. So Sis M told me she was taking her son to see Doctor D so I asked if I could go, so I did. When I got there he looked in my nose for a little while, told me, well it still looks a heck of a lot better than when I first saw you but there are polyps again.. So yeah, I am okay. I know that I can handle anything that the Lord puts in my life. The only thing that I don't like, polyps are cancerous. I don't know if you knew that. After my surgery he told me the tests came back and they tested good. So that is the only thing that I don't like about it. But I will just keep taking the meds and keep listening to the doc and Brother O. 
We had a baptism on Sunday. I will send a picture of that for you guys. It was awesome; it was the second person I personally baptized! It was an awesome baptism, there was one before ours in the other ward and so they just left the font filled, well the water got cold (speaking of cold, it’s been in the 30s and 40s this past week, but its warming back up) and so we ran hot water a little bit. Well when we got in the font the top of the water was warm but the bottom of the font was cold. Well we both felt that, and when I baptized him I made sure he reached the bottom of the font, hahaha, into the cold water. It was funny. He laughed and said I knew you would do that. 
The other thing that was crazy, Imogene is going downhill. She was in a hospital and now she is in an assisted living. She has chronic heart failure.... So we went and visited her. It was so sad. She was curled up into a little ball on the bed kind of like how I slept as a kid. She has lost a lot of weight. It was so sad.

So here is a cool analogy for you guys.
When a baby eagle hatches, the momma eagle lays feathers and other soft things to cushion the nest. But as they get older the mother eagle slowly takes the cushion out and starts to test them. Then the momma eagle will take her babies and throw them over the nest. The baby eagle plummets to the unforgiving ground but just before the rocky bottom the mother swoops down and catches the baby. This happens over and over again until the babies fly. Our Heavenly Father does the same with us. When we are young He lines our nest with cushions which is the testimony of our parents and leaders. But as we get older He tests us a little and then He drops us for a fall. But just before rock bottom He swoops in and catches us and brings us back up. But He does not just try us once. This happens over and over until we become like Him and can soar over all.
I really like this because there are always things that try us but we can know that The Lord will always bring us back up if we let Him. I love this Gospel. 
So yeah this week was good. 
Love you and miss you,
Elder Hanes

11/5/12
So this past week was really good. We had a lot of fun and a lot of work. There was a less active that we went to go try and see and she lives in an apartment complex and while we knocked her door the door across from her thought we knocked his door and he opened and we ended up going inside and teaching him and his three friends and setting baptismal dates with them. They are from Africa. It was so cool!! 

I am getting transferred... I am going to be a Zone Leader in the Oklahoma City South Zone, in Moore, OK. I am working in Pr. Taylor's ward. That should be fun!  My new companion is someone that I know and am close with so that should be fun as well. I leave Edmond Wednesday morning. But Moore is close to Edmond.  

My nose is okay, the meds are helping. Brother O said that I will have to do the netty pot and a steroid spray everyday until I can have surgery again... YAY!

Love you and miss you!
Elder Hanes

Monday, August 6, 2012

letter from Edler Hanes

2 weeks ago:
So why my week was crazy, we had what is called an LTM (leadership training meeting) it was 4 days long and it was in the city. It was a bunch of trainings and stuff with all the leaders of the mission. The meetings were awesome!! I learned so much.
I gave a talk in the branch yesterday, it was on the Atonement. It was a 20 min talk. It was really cool, and easy, haha, I love the mission. It is going by really fast.
I hope everything is going I love you and miss you
Today:
Some big news!! I AM LEAVING NORMAN... I feel like I am leaving home... again... haha It is sad but I am ready to go, I do not know where I am going yet I will find out Sunday, I will be leaving the 10th. My companion is going to train here in Norman
So yeah, I have been here for 6 months in Norman, it feels weird to leave.. But I am ready to see more of Oklahoma.
That’s all I can think of for now.
I love you, miss you,
Elder Hanes

Monday, June 25, 2012

Please write

Please write Elder Hanes a letter and mail to the address listed on the left of this blog. He would love to hear from you AND he will write you back.
6/11
 Okay, so first off my hand is great actually, it is healing really really fast. So I caught the dodge ball wrong and it bent my pinkie side-ways at the second knuckle. It turns out not to be broken!! That was a big relief. The tendon is just badly hurt and the joints are as well.  But I can get some movement in it and I don’t have to have it braced! But it is still swollen. But it is all good; trials make us stronger.
This past week was hard, Monday thru Wed. I was in doctors’ offices allot. So it really messed up our work. So the week was really slow because of it. Thursday I was biking down a hill and so I did not have pressure on my feet and when we started going up the hill my foot came off and hit the tire and that threw it back really hard into my peddle... it tore a big chunk of skin off my Achilles and it hurt pretty dang bad, but like I said it is all good; trials make us stronger.
6/18
This past week was awesome; I have a sweet experience that I think you will like. So Friday was temple conference, where the entire mission goes to the temple all day and has trainings from the temple president and pr. Taylor. Well Elder H and I are having hard times finding new investigators right now and so we both went to the temple with questions. One of mine was where can we find new investigators. Well I was looking at the map in my head while I was in the temple and my mind went straight to a road. Iowa St. So side note, we have a list of every Spanish person that owns a property in Norman. So when we got home I looked at the list and there were  two houses on that street, so I was sweet. So we went and tried the first one and I knew who it was we had talked to that guy before, he is a drunk and meth addict. So I was like come on I know this was a prompting. So we went to the next house. A young mother opened and we started giving her the 'heavenly gift." This is what we do for tracting. Pr. Taylor started it. What we do is knock a door and when they open we say "Hi! We are Representatives of Jesus Christ and we would love to come in for 2 mins and say a prayer for you and your children, for specific needs." And that is all we do and ask if we can come back and teach them. So we started the Heavenly gift with this young mother and she loved it but she said my husband is not home, right when she said that he drove up on a lawnmower and he did not want us to but she said too bad they are coming in for two mins. So we go inside and her kids come out and we prayed for them and the dad loved it asked us to come back and it was awesome. So after this I knew that Heavenly Father told me to go there for them. It was awesome!!!
My hand is getting better
Love you and miss you
6/25
So this past week was pretty good, hot and slow at some times, but it was good.
SO I got some news. I got a phone call Saturday. It was from Pr. Taylor. He starts the phone call with Elder Hanes how are you? I said I am just dandy. He laughed and then asked me if I will be the District Leader for the OU Norman District. So I said I will. Transfers are on the 4th of July. So I will become the DL then. I am pretty excited but am a little nervous.
Love and miss you! Elder Hanes

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Lette from Elder Hanes-grandmother passed away

So this week was pretty crazy and stressful. It was really good. Then Thursday came and President Taylor sent me a text and asked to see me early before zone conference. So he sat me down and said this is an informal interview, I said ok cool. He said well, I have some bad news for you... I said again....? And then he said your grandma Carol died.... wow. But then he said now she gets to see what you’re doing, so you better work hard. I was like will do.
Then he told me my new companion. I am getting AP(Assistant to the Mission President)Hansen. I am super pumped. I actually got to hang out with him all day Saturday and Sunday. The AP's go to Fort Sill every Sunday for church. It is a navy base here in OK. Well they go and help with sacrament and then they teach solders the lessons. They take two other missionaries with them every week. I was one of the two that got to go with them this past weekend. I went with Elder G, (one of my close missionary friends). It was so awesome. It was such a fun trip. I taught about 15 solders the first lesson and 4 committed to be baptized. It was so cool. It was pretty hard and intimidating., also very humbling.
I love love you,
Elder Hanes

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

letter from Elder Hanes- TORNADO

Well this past week was crazy! Friday is when the excitement started. Friday morning we went out to the car and someone had broken into our car. They stole my comps cds and a role of quarters that I got for my laundry. Then we went to district meeting and when we left the weather was getting a little nasty. So we went tracting and as we were tracting we parked the car and walked down a few streets. Well around 3 it started to rain a little. Not too much. Then it started getting black. Then it happened, the tornado alarm started going off, we looked at each other and were like NO... so we ran to the car. When we got to the car it had started raining really hard so we started heading to the nearest shelter, it was the high school. As we were driving, we were like man I hope this thing is not close... Well that’s when we started seeing trees fall down in the road in front of us.. We freaked out and so we turned and finally got to the high school. When we got to the school and ran into the building we were getting hit by hail (it was not soft...) lol But it calmed down and we went back to our apartment and changed and went back to help people. Well, it turns out that when we got in our car and were driving, we were right behind the tornado, it crossed Flood RD. and we drove on Flood right behind the tornado. The Tornado started at the intersection W 24 and Lindsey, it was about 2 blocks down from my apartment. It went North East, jumped a little bit after it touched down it jumped and came back down right next to the high school and went through the roads we were tracting... It was intense.
I have a really cool story. I had an angel help me. We were going around and helping people. I saw an older man on his roof cutting a tree off. I don’t even ask to help I just got up there and started helping him. Well it was raining again and the roof started getting slippery. Well he started cutting this one branch and it fell and he dropped the chain saw, and started falling back. I caught him with one arm and caught the chainsaw right before it landed on his leg... For one thing I don’t know how I was able to keep him from falling with one arm (he was not a small guy) and I don’t know how I caught the chain saw and grabbed it just right. It was awesome. Then afterwards, he tried giving me money; he put it in my hand and it was a hundred dollar bill. I was like NNNOOOO way. I gave it back to him and he started crying. He was 80 years old. His name is James S. He is way cool.
But yea that is my weekend. I will upload pics.
Love you, miss you,
Elder Hanes